In the category of: I cannot believe we’re even having this debate.

President Donald Trump asserted Monday that he has the right to pardon himself but suggested that he won’t use that power, adding that the special counsel investigation is “unconstitutional.”

“As has been stated by numerous legal scholars, I have the absolute right to PARDON myself, but why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong? In the meantime, the never ending Witch Hunt, led by 13 very Angry and Conflicted Democrats (& others) continues into the mid-terms!” the President tweeted.

In the category of: Gaia seems uneasy these days

Guatemala’s Fuego volcano erupted, killing at least 25 people and leaving residents covered in ash as they fled from billowing plumes.

The volcanic eruption Sunday spewed a river of red-hot lava and belched thick clouds of smoke nearly six miles into the air, according to the CONRED, the government agency for disaster reduction. Ashen remnants covered neighborhoods.

In addition to the fatalities, 20 others were injured, CONRED said.

Survivors described the horror and destruction when the volcano erupted.

“Not everyone escaped, I think they were buried,” Consuelo Hernandez said in a video released by CONRED. “We saw the lava was pouring through the corn fields and we ran toward a hill.”

In the category of: History repeats itself and sometimes that’s not a good thing.

The Trump administration’s policy to separate parents and children at the border has been met with a mix of outrage and confusion. The government announced the cruel practice on May 7, in a departure from past policies in which families were kept together and only detained for a limited time.

The Trump administration decided to work around the time restriction imposed by courts by no longer treating families as units: Parents are detained, and children are “put into foster care or wherever,” in the infamously blasé words of White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.

As with much of the administration’s actions, it’s difficult to parse how much of this policy is a new moral low for the country and how much of it builds on historical precedent. As is generally the case, the answer is both.